Saturday, 6 February 2016

Campermart 2016

For this weeks blog I checked out the 'Campermart 2016' show. Campermart is the first VW event of the season and was held inside the Telford International Centre, in Shropshire on Sunday 31st January 2016. It promised to be a good event with lots of things planned by the organisers which included: A market area where traders would be selling everything VW related, (and some things that were not VW related !), There was also a BMX display, a roller derby, and a Ukulele workshop. The bus doctors were in attendance as usual, this is where you could get free advise on any problems you may have with your bus from very experienced people. As well as all this there were numerous vehicles on display. This is my first time at Campermart and I think it's orientated more towards the water cooled T4 / T5 buses, rather than air-cooled VW's, although as my blog shows there were plenty of air-cooled vehicles at the show. As the owner of both an early bay and a T4, this was fine by me. The Telford International centre is about 115 miles from my hometown of Aylesbury so it was quite an early start to get there for the opening time of 10.00am. To see all my other blog entries, go to ‘My Blog Archive’ to the left of this page. Simply click on an arrow for a particular year, then click on an arrow for a particular month, this will then give you a drop down menu for all the blog entries for that month.

I hadn't been to the Telford International Centrebefore and wasn't sure what to expect, but Icertainly didn't expect a traffic queue that wenton for about a mile. Here are just 2 of the busesthat I slowly followed towards the show in my T4.

Once inside the international centre there was asmall display of vehicles including this lovely earlybarn door split screen bus. The unusual colourscheme stood out as it was so different.

This bus had some lovely faded Coca Colasignwriting on it, and along with the patinapaint it looked awesome. I did those Radarwheels which add just enough bling.

This RAT look bus really was nice. Even thoughthe red and yellow paint was faded the bus stillstood out and made an excellent choice ofvehicle to greet visitors as they entered the show.

This gorgeous 1970 early bay looked great withwhat looks like Neptune Blue coloured patina paint. The chrome bumpers add just enoughbright work which compliments the deluxe trimperfectly.

This U.S. import looked great from every angle.I do like roof racks on an early bay, not only dothey suit the bus but they are also so handy. Idid like the choice of polished alloy wheels, which remind my of the old wolfrace slot mags that used to be around when I was a kid.

There were plenty of T4's and T5's on show butthis satin blue T4 caught my eye. This loweredbus with it's satin blue paint with the retro whitescallops looked awesome. It also has some really cool airbrushed murals.

This bus really did stand out from the others inthe hall. I loved this bus and could have lookedat it for hours.

The interior was just as nice as the exterior. Theblue and white theme carried on inside so lookedso nice. It certainly makes my grey T4 cab interior look very drab and boring.

This lovely 1967 Westfalia SO42 split screenstood out. It has been lowered by 6" and has aCreative Engineering rack and pinion steeringupgrade with CSP brakes.

The Westfalia interior is all original and looksstunning, it really does have a nice 1960'sfeel to this this bus.

The period food packaging looks great in thedoor storage rack.

The rear end of this Westy rides on independentsuspension and has Beetle drum brakes. Thatvelvet green paint does look nice, which is whyI've decided to have my 1969 microbus paintedin the same colour.

The motor is pretty much stock apart from thetwin Empi carbs, and the electronic ignition andit is amazingly clean.

This 1966 frosted white over light grey splitscreen looked fantastic. Apparently this bus wasbought from new by a farmer in California whoran it around for a few years, then he blew the engine and it became a storage / play shed onthe same farm for 35 years!

It was purchased by a friend of the presentowner, a local county sheriff for $100 and wasthen shipped to the U.K. It has had a complete nut and bolt restoration and the present owners used it for their wedding day in 2015.

The new 1776 has twin weber carbs, adjustablefuel pressure, electronic fuel pump and electronicignition. I liked the LED light fixed up in the enginebay, it would certainly make working on the busduring the evening / night so much easier.

This 1969 microbus in savanna beige and cloudwhite caught my eye. It has been lowered and hasa 4" narrowed beam.

This lovely bus was originally from Michigan inthe U.S where it had some minor restorationwork carried out.

The bus underwent further restoration onceit was in the U.K. The gorgeous interior is hand made by the present owner and is loosely based on the Devon conversion model.

This early bay sat just right, with a slight racktowards the front. This really is a straight busthat is so clean.

The painted Porsche 356 wheels look great withthe VW logo hub caps. I have 356 steels on myearly bay and I think they look far better than any alloy wheel, but that is just my opinion.!

This cool retro looking T5 made me stop in my tracks. It has what looks like a cross betweenan old airstream trailer and a caravan on theback. The rear body was made from aluminium(just like the airstream trailers) but in a sort ofcaravan shape. The sides of this fantastic creationare made from one sheet of alloy which must havebeen a nightmare to create.

This really is such an unusual creation, but I loveit. This would certainly stand out at a VW show.The interior was amazing, I did have a quick lookinside, but due to the crowds I couldn't get adecent photo.

Regular readers will know I have an unhealthy liking for panel vans and this cream over baby blue panel van looked gorgeous. It had a nice high stance, with white painted steel wheels and white wall tyres. The body of this old bay was so straight and so clean.

The interior of the panel van was stunning. Ithad everything you could want and made tosuch a incredibly high standard.

How comfortable does this interior look? Thestandard of workmanship on this interior wasamazing. The LED lights in the roof panel illuminate the interior perfectly.So that was a very brief review Campermart2016. This review is shorter than my normal blogreviews, not because there wasn't anything to photograph, but because the sheer number of people that attended this event made taking good photos of the show vehicles very difficult. Overall this show is a good start to the VW season withplenty to do and see and well worth a look whether you're into your air cooled or water cooled Volkswagen's.

About My 1969 Microbus.

Hi and welcome to my blog about my 1969 VW Microbus, the places I go, the people I meet and the vehicles I see along the way.If you like what you read on my blog, why not sign up to Google and feel free to post a comment with your location so I can see how far my blog reaches, or better still why become a 'follower' of my site? Don't forget to check out my blog archive pages (above) to see what you have previously missed.!In case you don't want to sign up to Google, why not become a 'friend' of mine on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/#!/dave.clark.9674to get instant updates on any new blog entries I post and many other VW related stories from myself and my friends. Thanks.